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Elmer Riddle 



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A Sketch 



HIS LIFE. 




CLEVELAND: 

WILLIAM W. WILLIAMS. 



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ELMER RIDDLE 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 




CLEVELAND, O. 

WILLIAM W. WILLIAMS 

1884 



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ELMER RIDDLE 

A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. —Birth— Parentage — Childhood— Migra- 
tions and Immigrations— 1837-1852 - 9 

II. — Boyhood — Family Life in Michigan — 
Changes — An End — A New Departure 
— 1852-1858 - - - 30 

III.— The Young Man at the Old Newbury 

Home— Life & Destiny — 185 8-1 862- 1873 48 

IV. — The War — Volunteering of the Six Rid- 
dle Cousins— Peace— The Steam Mill 
— A Removal — The Girls Need Educa- 
iion— 1873-1876 - - - - 62 

V. — Busy Life— Building — New Business — 
Laura — The Girls— Visiting— Visitors 
— 1876-1883 ----- 73 

VI.— The End— The Last Day— Last Words- 
Final Leave-Taking— The Telegram— 
A Wringing of Hands- -Laura — Baby 
Alice— The Call — Place of Burial— 
Dr. Cone— The Funeral— Dr. Cone's 
Address— Kindred Hands Lay Him to 
Rest 85 

VII. — Conclusion — Personal Qualities— Cour- 
age— Coolness— Instances— Education 
—Saw All There Was in Things— 
Their Value to Him— Knowledge of 
Birds— Power Over Men— Genius for 
Mechanics— A Good Speaker— Home 
Characteristics — Estimate of Him - 98 



ELMER RIDDLE 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH— PARENTAGE— CHILDHOOD — MIGRATIONS 
AND IMMIGRATIONS— 1837— 1852. 

The subject of this sketch was of good 
New England parentage, on both sides. 
The Riddles were of a Scotch clan, some 
of whom were planted in Ireland in the 
reign of James I. England has at least 
dealt equal oppression to her Irish subjects 
whether they were of the native tribes or 
of English and Scotch colonists. From 
this oppression, they and many kindred 
families made their way to America before 
the middle of the last century; came with 
the first Scotch-Irish colonists, in time, they 
and their sons, to fight their old oppres- 
sors, in the war of the Revolution. The 
Riddles, and their kindred, the Squires and 
Moultons, settled in the town of Monson, 



IO ELMER RIDDLE 

Hampden Co., Mass. Of the sons of 
Thomas Riddle, the youngest, Thomas, 
married Minerva Merrick, of good Welsh 
blood, in 1805. These, some years after 
the death of the father, sold the home- 
stead, and with their five sons, the eldest 
ten years, and the youngest one year of 
age, immigrated to the Western Reserve of 
Ohio in the autumn of 18 17. The second 
of these sons, named for his grandfather 
Jose (pronounced Jo-see) Merrick, at that 
time eight years old, rode the off mare of 
the pair that worked on the lead of the 
oxen from Massachusetts to Ohio, stopping 
with their kindred a few days on the " Hol- 
land Purchase," as a large tract of Western 
New York was then called. They settled 
in the township of Newbury, Geauga 
county. 

Jose Merrick was as hardy, strong, lithe, 
handsome a lad as entered the forest of the 
then farthest west; brave, modest and free 
of spirit; born to deserve and win love. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. II 

He lived the hard adventurous life of a 
pioneer boy, became an expert hunter and 
woodsman, deft at all handicraft and wood- 
craft of the forest. He lost his father when 
thirteen years of age — one of eight children, 
the youngest an infant. During that year 
of affliction he was quite the only well 
member of the helpless family. His elder 
brother was for a year or two disabled by 
the ague of the country. It is not his life 
I am to tell, although something of it is 
needful to a just appreciation of the sub- 
ject of these slight labors. He grew to 
manhood in the service of his mother and 
the younger brood, as did his elder brother. 
They became young men of unusual intel- 
ligence and personal advantages. The 
younger, in particular, from his free and 
joyous spirit, was one of the best liked 
young men of his time, and though he 
owed little to books, he had the fine man- 
ners of his father, and sufficient address to 
make himself everywhere acceptable. He 



12 ELMER RIDDLE 

early became a man of influence and widely 
known. 

February 23, 1836, he married Caroline 
Hayden. The Haydens were a good 
Massachusetts family, who removed to Ohio 
in the fall of 1827, and purchased a farm 
owned and partially improved by Hiram 
Colton, some two miles west of the Riddle 
farm, both on an east and west road, the 
second highway established in the township. 

Caroline was the eldest daughter of 
Moses Hayden, a man of strong lines of 
character, a fine musician, famous for a 
remarkable tenor voice. Caroline matured 
in the lessening woods to very attractive 
and comely womanhood, and was about 
twenty years of age at marriage. Jose M. 
had become the owner of a part of the 
family homestead, a mile south and half a 
mile east of the centre of Newbury. There 
he built a house, where the young pair set 
up their married life. 

Here, January 10, 1837, Elmer was born. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 1 3 

Of perfectly healthy and cheerful-spirited 
parents, both above the average for mind 
and intelligence, he might fairly claim to 
be well born. The infant, though perfect 
in form, strong and healthy, was slight, a 
physical characteristic he was to retain in 
common with his grandfathers, Thomas 
Riddle and Moses Hayden. Great strength, 
perfect health, activity and endurance were 
to be his, with good looks. The stature 
of his father and brothers was to be denied 
him. His Grandmother Riddle was pres- 
ent at his birth, and he became and always 
remained her favorite ; nor was she one to 
spoil even the first grandson. Tender, 
her's was a heroic spirit, and man nor boy 
who had not much of that quality, could 
win or retain her regard. 

She named him. Her husband's name, 
as stated, was Thomas. She had buried a 
boy in Massachusetts, the paragon of the 
family, whose name was Elmer. She gave 
him both of these cherished names, and 



14 ELMER RIDDLE 

probably in the family record he is written 
Thomas Elmer Riddle. Nearly four years 
later, and after the birth of a sister, his 
eldest brother was born, during the won- 
derful Whig campaign of 1840. An idle 
young uncle, a great admirer of the famous 
Tom Corwin, persisted in calling the sturdy, 
large-headed boy Tom Corwin, and that 
became his name — translated Thomas, in 
writing, probably — though the name be- 
stowed scarcely warranted that freedom. 
The family always called him Corwin. The 
boys of the famous Ohio Seventh called 
him Tom. It was never liked as a name in 
the family or by the kindred, and was never 
adopted for either of the boys. The older 
was Elmer, as the younger was Corwin, 
until the first succeeded in shedding the 
Tom entirely upon the second. Did it 
carry luck? 

As was stated, there came a sister be- 
tween — Frances — sharing largely the graces 
and good qualities of both parents. Later 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 1 5 

three more comely sisters were added to the 
flock. 

In 1845 the family removed to Michigan. 
Those eight first years of Elmer's life have 
left no record — hardly a memory. His 
father was busy clearing land, raising 
wheat, building barns, buying and raising 
cattle and horses, working as few men 
worked even in that colony of steady, de- 
termined, enterprising New Englanders. 
Jose had the burden of his mother's com- 
paratively still helpless family added to his 
own, on his hands, maintaining two separate 
households, with some debts, to begin with. 

Elmer put in much of his time at grand- 
ma's, generally having to wait for Frances, 
and later for Tom Corwin. Unusually in- 
telligent and fearless, he was of much ser- 
vice on the large farm and in running of 
errands about the neighborhood. Toward 
the last of the time came a drought of long- 
continued severity — a thing to which that 
region is subject, and it became necessary 



1 6 ELMER RIDDLE 

to drive nearly all the stock once a day to 
the mill-pond, formed by the outlet of 
Punderson's Pond, a mile and a half east. 
This was the exclusive task of Elmer. 
There was quite a herd of cows and young 
stock. The more remote part of the route 
was especially lonely, with a considerable 
body of woods to pass. Near this lived a 
curmudgeonly old man, who thought the 
little, lonely child was fair game, and as 
often as he saw him he told him that a 
wandering crazy man by the name of 
Greenfield lived in those particular woods, 
and that it was his especial mission to carry 
off small boys. Brave as he was, this 
caused him daily actual suffering. The 
transit of the lonely, darksome wood, un- 
der the circumstances, called for the exer- 
cise of a good deal of courage and firmness, 
and left the memory of that arid summer 
and the old man indelibly fixed in his 
heart. 

The stout-hearted father waged a losing 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 1 7 

struggle for existence, and resolved to 
migrate. An opportunity presenting, he 
exchanged his property for wild lands in 
Michigan. He paid some of his debts, 
and with his young wife and children set 
his face again for the woods as resolutely 
and cheerfully as a man ever faced a new 
and hard necessity. Brave, stout, hopeful 
heart, one's eyes dim with tears as they still 
wistfully look along the lonely way where 
he vanished from the vision of mother, 
brothers and kindred in the old home. 

His going was deplored by all who knew 
him, and his presence in the Michigan 
woods drew to the new neighborhood more 
than a dozen families from Newbury and 
Auburn within the next five or six years. 
He was about of the same age that his 
father was at the migration from New Eng- 
land, twenty-eight years before, and Elmer 
was of the same age as his own father when 
that important event occurred. 

It was a period of general depression 



1 8 ELMER RIDDLE 

through Northern Ohio and the West, and 
while individuals often gain by a change of 
residence, when the inevitable expense, 
loss of time and material are taken into ac- 
count, of remedies for hard times, removal 
to a new and untried region is certainly 
among the doubtful. The advantages of 
the different portions of the country sooner 
or later equalize themselves. They always 
have and always will. 

The younger men enjoying present facili- 
ties of transportation, will not readily ap- 
preciate the mere labor and time of trans- 
ferring the family to the site of the 
proposed new home. They went from 
Cleveland to Detroit by steamer. There 
they were met by Hiram Covill, who car- 
ried the household goods by land carriage. 
From Detroit the distance was about one 
hundred miles northwesterly. The new 
purchase was in the township of Thetford, 
Genessee county, some sixteen miles from 
Flint, the county seat, and thirty miles or 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 1 9 

so south and east of the nearest coast line 
of the great Saginaw bay, part of Lake 
Huron, and then in the heart of the primi- 
tive forest. It is to be borne in mind that 
the settler under these conditions takes 
everything at first hand. His life and la- 
bors are wholly primitive. With his own 
hands he clears the standing trees to make 
a place for his cabin, which he constructs 
of their trunks. He then chops down the 
trees and burns them to clear the soil for 
his crops, which must be done, and the 
crops grown, harvested and reduced to a 
proper form of food before the emigrant's 
self-sustaining life has begun. The woods 
were full of game, pursued only by the 
Indians, who still inhabited the country. 

Merrick Riddle was a skilled hunter and 
an expert in woodcraft, having in these re- 
spects the advantage of his father in the 
Ohio woods. He knew how to turn to avail 
himself of all the resources of the forest, 



20 ELMER RIDDLE 

though more empty-handed in other re- 
spects than was Thomas Riddle. 

They reached Michigan late in the autumn 
and found a shelter in an unoccupied log 
cabin some three miles from his new pur- 
chase. This was to be explored, identified, 
the lines ascertained, a site selected for the 
future home and the solitary man was to 
walk the six miles daily in the shortening and 
darkening days, and do what he might with 
his axe. Not solitary; the brightest, hardiest 
little hero of eight, with his small axe, given 
him by Rube Johnson, in the old Newbury 
home, with its neat hickory helve like a 
man's axe, was up and away with him every 
day before light, running by his side, car- 
rying their dinner and working there, 
cheering him with his brave words, and go- 
ing back after nightfall. 

The new cabin was raised and moved 
into in February following — February of 
1846. 

Something of their life and experience 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 2l 

will be better told by Frances, twenty 
months younger than her brother. Writ- 
ing of Elmer, she says: 

" He soon found playmates among the 
Indian boys after we moved into our new 
cabin, some time in February. They taught 
him to make bows and arrows, and he 
showed them how to make cross-guns and 
darts. He was always a great favorite with 
them, always so full of kindness, and so 
perfectly fearless. He could hit the mark 
with a bow as often as any of them, and 
yet never boasted over them when he beat 
them." 

And of their first school in Michigan : 
"The following summer he and I went 
to school, three miles away, following an 
old Indian trail for half the distance. At 
that point was a small clearing and a cabin 
occupied by the Buells. There we were 
joined by two girls and a boy. From their 
place we had a half mile of road, and then 
the trail quite the rest of the way to the 



22 ELMER RIDDLE 

little old hovel where the school was kept. 
Everyday we went, 'rain or shine,' we 
two through the deep woods, with no other 
human being near us, never meeting or 
seeing any one except Indians, and them 
but seldom. I well remember how timid 
I was in some very thick dark pine woods, 
especially when the day was cloudy. El- 
mer always assured me, with the utmost 
confidence, that he was fully able to care 
for me, and though but twenty months 
older than myself, I had the utmost faith 
in him. 

"The school continued three months, 
and when relieved of attendance there, we 
had the care of the cow. A mile away 
through the woods, southeast of us, was 
an old field, cleared and deserted years be- 
fore. There was still a fence around it. 
To that we drove her every morning, leav- 
ing her to feed there during the day, and 
going and bringing her home at evening. 
Elmer always carried his Indian bow and 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 23 

arrows. We had to cross a spring brook 
on the way, which we did on a large old 
log, and I remember he took his hatchet 
one day and cut a nice step to get on to 
it at one end, which was difficult for me to 
do before ; ' for girls and small boys, ' he 
said, meaning myself and Corwin, who 
sometimes went with us, but was rather 
an incumbrance, in Elmer's estimation. 
He was a good deal inclined to see bears. 

"We went to that school in the summer 
time until we returned to Ohio in 1848." 

Elmer's Grandmother Hayden died in 
the spring of that year. His grandfather, 
still the owner of the Newbury farm, made 
his father an offer to return and take charge 
of it. So advantageous it seemed that he 
accepted it, and with his family and goods 
returned and took up his residence at the 
Hayden homestead in August, 1848, where 
they remained until April, 1852. 

"He (Elmer) was too small," says Fran- 
ces, "to be of much use on that farm, 



24 ELMER RIDDLE 

where children were of small account at the 
best. We went to school at the Utley 
school-house a part of the time, and a part 
of the time over to the Walker school- 
house." 

The Hayden farm was on the eastern 
slope of a small, high table land, which, a 
fourth of a mile west, broke down in a steep 
hill, long known as Utley's hill, from the 
top of which, west, was a very fine outlook 
over the lovely valley of Silver Creek. At 
the foot of the hill the east and west road 
was crossed by one north and south. The 
Utley school-house stood on a small round 
hill on the southwest corner. The Walker 
school-house was a mile south, through a 
beautiful woodland, and across Silver Creek. 
In the early settlement of the region (1817- 
18), this neighborhood was called " The 
West Part, " and among the settlers were 
the Utleys, of near kindred of the Riddles, 
and a well-to-do family of Munns, more re- 
motely related to them. It was a place 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 25 

of much early importance. There the 
Uphams lived, the Alexanders, Robinsons, 
and later came Jerry Evans, who married 
the oldest of the Munn daughters, and still 
later the Haydens, as stated; also the 
Hawses. The eastern slope of the hill 
was called "Ward's Hill," from Capt Jonas 
Ward, who lived there on the north side, a 
man of note in the olden time. The Hay- 
den farm, on the south side was, as stated, 
originally owned by Hiram Colton, a cousin 
of Elmer's father, also an important per- 
sonage in the early years of Newbury. 
Looking eastward from the hill is a beauti- 
ful view, of two or three miles, and from 
such a height that the well farmed and well 
built up highway looks like a straggling 
single street of a nourishing village, on the 
left of which, in the distance, may be seen 
the Riddle homestead where Elmer was 
born. 

To Elmer, who had roved the woods, 
hunted, fished and played with the Indian 



26 ELMER RIDDLE 

boys in the splendid woods, life on the 
farm was tame and monotonous, enliv- 
ened, as Frances says, by much prized ex- 
cursions to Grandma Riddle's, where they 
were most welcome, an occasional journey 
to "the State road," now South Newbury, 
and one or two trips to Chardon, twelve 
miles away. 

Corwin (Tom) says, that while here, El- 
mer devoted himself largely to the manu- 
facture of bows and arrows, in which as in 
their use he was an expert, furtively 
taking the material from the well-seasoned 
and tough white ash rails, which he found 
suitable for his purpose, in the fences on 
the farm, leaving the rail in such a position 
that his inroad upon it would not be ob- 
servable. There is evidence that this Cor- 
win, on his return to Michigan, became a 
great associate with the young Indians, 
quite equaling his elder and more ingeni- 
ous brother in archery, as in the use of the 
rifle and shot gun. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 2J 

Frances relates that they found the 
rambling old Hayden farm house and out- 
buildings overrun with rats, against which 
there seemed no way of making head. El- 
mer at once set himself about the invention 
and production of a trap, composed wholly 
of wood. He was about it many days — 
the derision of Grandfather Hayden, who 
lived to be ninety-one, and never ceased to 
wonder that small boys were ever invented. 
She does not remember the form or princi- 
ple of the invention. It was perfected, and 
proved too much for the rats, cunning as 
they are — a method of decoying and im- 
prisoning them. Her language is: "It 
caught them about as fast as they could be 
disposed of; an arrangement that secured 
them alive. Grandfather laughed and 
poohed at it while he was at work upon it, 
saying some very exasperating things for a 
boy to endure, but when it proved to do 
just what Elmer declared it would, and 



2% ELMER RIDDLE 

even better, then he pronounced it — 'Won- 
derful, wonderful for such a boy ! ' ' 

Poor, dear old grandpa ! After many 
years they met on the other shore, and he 
has doubtless received light on several mat- 
ters dark to him here. 

Merrick was himself eager to return to 
his cabin and life in the woods, and Frances 
tells how finally on a cold and gloomy 
spring morning in 1852 he and Elmer started 
on their return, in advance of the family, 
going west over the hills to Cleveland. For 
him it was the final leave-taking of all the 
dear old home associations. One fancies 
him pausing on the summit and turning for a 
last look east along the old way so cherished, 
with his boy's hand in his, on that cheer- 
less morning, and then turning his brave 
eyes westward. Under his feet lay the lit- 
tle burying ground where slept his father ; 
by his side that brother whose death was 
such a heart-break, and by them his own 
beautiful baby, Mortimer. Was his 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 20, 

thoughts of them ? God knows. He had 
to pass the Ulteys, to whom he was greatly 
attached, and who loved him as a member 
of their own family. 

Later in May they were followed by the 
strong, brave mother, with Frances, Corwin 
and baby Laura.* Caroline did not forget 
the grave of Mortimer, nor for her was 
this a final parting from her girlhood home 
and its associations. 



* Born May 13, 1848, three months before their return to 
Ohio. Charles' birth was November 17, 1850; Maria, April 
10, 1853, an d Nellie (Eleanor), April 11, 1855. 



36 ELMER RIDDLE 



CHAPTER II. 

BOYHOOD— FAMILY LIFE IN MICHIGAN— CHANGES 
—AN END— A NEW DEPARTURE— 1852— 1858. 

They returned eagerly to their little farm 
of twenty acres cleared, in the woods. It 
had been left in the hands of a neighbor, 
who lived in an old "shingle shanty" at 
the lower end of the garden, and who was 
clearing his own land on the west. He was 
to "slash" twenty acres of woods — felling 
the trees merely — put out an orchard for 
Merrick, and keep things in order. 

"The lay of the land was about the same 
as we left it," says the graphic Frances, 
speaking of the return. "That was about 
all we found as we left it. Briars and 
weeds were in all the fence corners, the 
fences down and rails scattered. Father 
said 'slashing' well expressed the work 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 3 1 

done in the woods. It was now more la- 
bor to clear the land than would have been 
required, had the trees all still stood. The 
young orchard was a wonder to him. The 
man had set apple trees on his own land, 
where he had built a shanty. His trees 
were straight and thrifty, while ours were 
crooked and nurly. It always remained a 
mystery to father. But the house — our 
neat, snug, comfortable house, with its 
sloping roof making a pleasant stoop to the 
south, and its broad, deep windows giving 
a view of a beautiful grove at the north. 
Oh, dear! it had been converted into a 
dwelling, a shingle shanty, a chicken coop, 
a cow shed. Well, poor mother shed tears, 
and father shed some very expressive words 
with marked emphasis." 

Merrick and Elmer reached the place in 
April, Caroline and the rest in May, after 
the worst signs of neglect and abuse had 
been removed, and they resumed cheer- 
fully and hopefully the interrupted life. 



32 ELMER RIDDLE 

Four years of intense incessant work for 
the hands of all, a happy, healthy, vigor- 
ous family, the father and mother each in 
their place, and helpful to each other, the 
children increased in these years to seven in 
number, hardy, docile, unexacting and 
helpful as their tender hands grew strong 
with the years. 

Never was a man better calculated to 
grapple successfully with the surroundings 
than he whose hand dealt the principal 
blows, hardy, strong, alert, full of expedi- 
ents, tireless energy, of hopeful, cheerful 
temper, self-reliant, not forgetful of the re- 
ligious training and example of his father 
and mother. He had been a builder in 
Ohio, had the tools of that business, and 
though unceasing in his assaults upon the 
woods, he found time to do many jobs for 
the neighbors, who now began to come 
into the forest about him. All the hours 
of daylight were given by a skilled laborer 
and artist, for such he was, with every im- 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 33 

plement he handled. If he had errands to 
do, business to transact at Flint, Pine Run, 
or elsewhere, the journey one way, and 
often both, was performed in the night- 
time. Such a man with such a wife and 
such children, the very number of which 
would overwhelm less energetic parents, 
capable of such labor, well directed, would 
as they did, produce surprising results in 
these four years. Their children took the 
temper, strength and spirit of the parents, 
and went forward through healthful infancy 
to happy self-helping childhood and vigor- 
ous hopeful youth. 

During these years Elmer was ever at 
his father's side, strong, brave, cheerful, 
happy. He had his father's love of the 
woods, hunters' craft, his love of birds, 
with more than his keenness of observa- 
tion, and the inventive faculty in larger 
proportion than any of his race perhaps, 
some of whom possessed it in unusual 
measure. 



34 ELMER RIDDLE 

The woods abounded in game of all de- 
scriptions. Bears were very numerous, by 
temper not dangerous if left alone, though 
inclined to prey on living pork. Elmer 
and his father once killed a bear by felling 
a tree, the hollow of which he inhabited. 
They did not know of his presence and 
death until some days later. 

Merrick told of meeting a bear under 
conditions, showing both forgetfulness or 
fool-hardiness, and some nerve on his part. 
Passing through the woods one early sum- 
mer day unarmed, he came upon a little 
hairy cub, which scampered away pursued 
by him, though he well knew what it was, 
and that its dam could not be remote. The 
little brute made under a huge fallen tree 
trunk, too large for the man to leap, and 
high enough from the ground to permit 
him, with some difficulty, to follow the 
bearlet, which he did. He arose on the 
other side, to find himself confronted by 
the mother bear, standing erect not three 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 35 

yards from him. He saw at a glance, too, 
that he was in a small enclosure made by 
fallen tree-trunks overturned by a cyclone 
(though that was before their name was in- 
vented). The situation was embarrassing. 
He had the usual large jack knife, with 
which he armed himself, and thus confront- 
ing, man and she bear — not proverbially 
amiable — they stood admiring each other 
for a minute or two, when the matron, 
having recovered her young, retired to an 
angle of her fortress, and the visitor slowly 
withdrew. 

Deer were plenty, and though too busy 
to hunt, the needs of the family sometimes 
sent the" male head into the forest with his 
rifle, and accident occasionally brought 
deer within its reach, kept at hand as it 
usually was. 

Corwin tells of the death of a noble 
buck at his father's hand, in an exceptional 
way. Elmer was with his father one day 
in the new fields, when an Indian dog 



36 ELMER RIDDLE 

coursed a buck through the woods, which 
leaped the fence, and seeing the boy, at 
once made for him, who turned and fled 
toward his father. Fortunately a blud- 
geon was lying at hand, which the agile man 
snatched up, and ran with to the lad's 
rescue. The furious creature dashed for- 
ward, and received at the man's hands a 
well directed blow across the snout that 
ended his career and life. Wild cats were 
numerous. The Canada Lynx was not so 
rare as was desirable, and smaller game, 
wild turkeys were plenty, and the squirrels 
so numerous as to be often destructive of 
the growing crops. Some four miles from 
the cabin was a fine, small lake, abounding 
with bass and pickerel. On this Merrick 
placed a canoe, and to this he and Elmer 
many times resorted in the night season, 
taking the fish with a spear, by torch light. 
Frances says that they were always suc- 
cessful, and usually, when the night's take 
was ended, they slept in the canoe till day- 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 3? 

light ; and that the little lake was really a 
valuable source of supply in the early years. 
Elmer, as all quick, ingenious boys do — 
and girls also — had a world of his own, 
apart. In the old log barn he constructed 
for himself a mechanics' shop. Here, al- 
though he had never seen a turning lathe, 
his need of one, acting on his invention, 
produced a very effective machine, by 
which he supplied to the settlers many 
useful things, and for himself and the fam- 
ily, the juniors included, whatever could be 
secured by the aid of a lathe. His father's 
joiner's chisels, as well as the tool chest 
generally, furnished a supply of instru- 
ments for work in wood. For whatever he 
did with iron, he was left to his own unaid- 
ed invention. Nights, rainy days, and Sun- 
days, with slivers and shreds of time 
snatched from his regular labors, were de- 
voted to this shop. Three months each 
winter to the district school, for three or 
four years, was the sum total of his educa- 



38 ELMER RIDDLE 

tional advantages. It would be interesting 
to know the results, had his mind, under 
the same restless mental push, taken the 
direction of books and intellectual pursuits, 
as in the cases of his paternal uncles — Har- 
rison and George — and his younger cousin 
Lance Clark. The soundness and vigor of 
his physical make up would assuredly have 
carried him through the dangers — the over- 
work, fatal to each of them. Like his father, 
his inclination — his passion was for an 
active outdoor life. His shop work was 
only not irksome, because its product so 
deeply interested him. 

Thus for him, for his father, mother, and 
the family, passed the four years, so short 
and fleeting, yet so long and slowly moving. 
The woods had receded, new fields added, 
the old fields rendered more valuable. The 
farm — such it had become — was well tilled 
and stocked; an orchard planted out with 
shrubs, and ornamental trees about the 
house and yard. Already the chief was 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 39 

s 

planning the erection of new buildings, and 
had hewed and partly framed the large tim- 
bers for a framed barn, of 40x60 feet in size, 
with a basement ; when for him the end 
came — an end that was to be a new begin- 
ning for those dearest to him — it came 
suddenly, inscrutably, as great changes do. 
The summer of of 1855 had been one of 
intense labor. About the first day of Au- 
gust Merrick had occasion to go to Flint to 
procure some iron work for his new barn, 
and as usual plunged into the woods to- 
ward nightfall, of one Saturday, in a right 
line for the town. He returned in the 
night, and was ill the next morning. Tues- 
day he was delirious at times. Wednes- 
day, Frances, who was teaching a few miles 
distant, was sent for, and a young M. D. of 
the neighborhood called. He saw nothing 
alarming. The sick man had overworked ; 
would be up in a day or two. He was not; 
and Elmer consulted a doctor at Flint. He 
sent some medicine, but the distressed 



40 ELMER RIDDLE 

youth hurried back and secured his per- 
sonal attendance. It was all over on the 
ninth day. The planning brain was still, 
the hurrying feet, the strong, cunning 
hands were at rest. There was a little 
"Western Reserve" colony about there, 
and it ran about the highways and forest 
paths that Merrick Riddle was dead. 

There were Johnsons and Staffords, and 
Fullers, Wilbors, Potters, and Bartholo- 
mews, Stanards and Beards, and many 
more men, drawn there because he was 
there. They had heard he was ill — now 
were told he was dead. It need not be 
dwelt upon. They came and buried him 
on a lovely little swell of land in his 
orchard, a favorite spot of his, and went 
their ways. Caroline was utterly pros- 
trated. Her youngest child, Nellie, was 
but four months old. She was not able to 
be out and take her new place as sole head 
of the family until the warm weather of the 
ensuing spring, and the whole burden of 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 41 

the family fell upon brave Elmer and heroic 
Frances — their first winter out of the dis- 
trict school. They crushed down their 
heart-break, and lived and bore their work 
and sorrow on and through, till the light 
came faintly and dim. With the return of 
strength came the purpose, the will and 
ability to the widowed mother to govern 
and lead forward her family in the hard 
struggle for existence and for place in the 
world. It was in her to govern wisely, 
after the New England pattern, modified 
by the freer life of the west, as for her as 
for all descendants of the Puritans in Ohio 
the pattern had been. 

Elmer was then nineteen, and Frances 
twenty months younger. He was smooth 
faced, boyish, yet in every fibre, heart and 
spirit, a man — very man. He loved his 
father as such a son would love such a 
father. Loyal to his mother, his helpless 
sisters and brothers, so far as he might with 
Frances, he took up the burden that fell 



42 ELMER RIDDLE 

from the dead hands of his sire and steadily 
bore it until a change came, later. He fin- 
ished " laying out," as it is called, the 
frame of the barn, framed and "bossed the 
raising" of it — a heavy frame of six 
"bents," " purlines " and ridge pole, al- 
ways regarded as a very considerable 
achievement for a boy of nineteen, and 
which required the united and well ordered 
strength of fifty or sixty men, under the 
orders of a skillful commander, to erect it. 
The barn was finished, as were two or 
three jobs, undertaken by his father, for 
building and finishing houses in the neigh- 
borhood. In addition, he engaged with 
Philo Stafford, Frances' manly young lover, 
in the manufacture of shaved shingles. The 
region abounded with pine of the best 
quality. Of these they shipped fifty thous- 
and to Geauga County, Ohio. Then came 
a change. After some two years Caroline, 
the widow, contracted a second and, in all 
respects, a suitable and advantageous mar- 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 43 

riage, with Sherman Moulthrop, a bachelor 
farmer of the neighborhood, of about her 
age, and the owner of a fine property ; a 
pleasant tempered, upright, thrifty man, 
who became a true friend of the elder chil- 
dren and a parent of the younger. 

To Elmer and Frances he could never, 
in any way, take the place of their father. 
It was for them inevitably a sore trial. The 
mother was ever a true mother, but for 
Elmer the place ceased to be a home. He 
was of age about the time; was no longer 
needed. Frances was happily married, and 
the world was open to him. Yet through 
all the subsequent changes of life and for- 
tune he never ceased to mourn his brave, 
manly, generous- souled father, and was 
true and loyal to his mother, as was his 
nature to be. 

Some further words of the Michigan 
home and family, and we will accompany 
our now young man to his native Ohio, and 



44 ELMER RIDDLE 

sketch as rapidly as we may the outline of 
his life there. 

The most marked events in pioneer life 
are the erection of nice framed buildings to 
take the place of the primitive structures 
of unhewn logs. Usually the first is a barn 
to house the stock and crops, and often an 
interval of years intervened before the wife 
and children were as well provided for ; yet 
a log house, the home of a thrifty wife and 
provident husband, though 

"Cabined, cribbed, confined," 

was comfortable, snug, cosy, and in a few 
years manages to lay hold of the hearts' 
imaginations and dreams, the memories and 
loves of children reared there, as no other 
home does or can. 

The new husband early erected a small, 
convenient framed house, and with pain 
Frances and Corwin and little Laura saw the 
dear old cabin, log by log, thrown down, 
and the structure demolished. 

Speaking of this event Frances says : — 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE; 4$ 

' ' Dear sister Laura has written two little poems lately that 
show her rich, sweet nature so clearly that tears blinded me 
as I tried to read them. One is "The Old Log House," 
and as I read it I was back there, under the smoky old roof, 
at night, with the red firelight shining up through the cracks 
of the floor and playing and flashing fantastically on the 
blackened shingles overhead ; and I heard the branches of 
the old "balm of Gilead " tree rubbing and raking over the 
outside whenever the wind blew, just as it used to. 

" Poor child ! I did not think she remembered it all so 
well, and grieved so much when it was torn away. I had 
seen it built ; I had lived in the low old chamber when the 
lower part was used to store hay for the cow and wood for 
our fire, and a workshop for my father. We used to climb a 
ladder carrying our wood and water, all one fall and winter, 
up where we lived. I had seen father finish it off, and from 
early childhood lived in it till I was married. Every log and 
chink had for me some dear association, but I thought Elmer 
and I were the only ones who ever cared much for it. Laura 
was so young when it was torn down, and, as it seemed to 
me, had lived so short a time in it, that she would hardly re- 
member it. I have insisted that she send you these lines. 
She shrinks from it, and will not believe they will interest 
you or can have the least merit. 

' ' The other verses were written after receiving that awful 
telegram." 

I am glad to give Laura's sweet and 
touching lines of the old home, the only 
ones she was prevailed upon to send me. 



46 ELMER RIDDLE 

THE OLD LOG HOUSE. 

When I hear those words what memories rise 

From a time far back in the misty past, 
Of a happy childhood and sunny skies, 

And a kind voice silent these many years ; 
Of brothers and sisters whose faces wear 

The look of their childhood and careless youth, 
Ere life touched their hearts and left shadows there ; 

Of a quiet home in an old log house. 

'Twas a rude home, and o'er its low eaves 

Trees of the forest their branches waved, 
And the winds of autumn scattered their leaves 

In the sunny paths where our young feet strayed. 
How often I dream that I lie once more 

Up under the roof 'neath those swaying boughs, 
And hear through my dreams as I heard of yore, 

Their whispered refrains o'er the old log house. 

Then in fancy I hear the soft rain beat 

On the mossy shingles above my head, 
With a merry sound as of dancing feet, 

Or with sadder tone as of falling tears. 
The yellow firelight is shining once more 

With many a strange and wavering gleam, 
Up through the broad cracks in the chamber floor, 

On the brown roof-boards of the old log house. 

But they're mem'ries all ; for only in dreams 
Can we see the home of our childhood's days ; 

And how far in the past that old home seems 
When viewed through the storms of these later years. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 47 

The old home is gone, and a new one stands 
In the same old place 'neath the spreading trees, 

That seem to beckon with quivering hands 
To those who once lived in the old log house. 

For the happy children who loved their shade 

Have grown to women and hurrying men, 
And many out into the world have strayed. 

Do they ever think of that dear old home ? 
When they sometimes hear in the twilight still 

The whip-por-will sing, but with sadder tone, 
The song that he sang on the orchard hill, 

Do no mem'ries come of the old log house? 

But one far away from the old farm lies, 

Still the home of our mother, loved and true, 
And in vain will she watch with tear-dimmed eyes 

For the first one gone who can ne'er return. 
Yes, death has come, and has broken the band 

By those old-time memories closely knit, 
And never again will all of us stand 

'Neath the trees that shaded the old log house. 

—Laura Riddle White. 
Thetford, Mich., Jan. 3, 1884. 



48 ELMER RIDDLE 



CHAPTER III. 

THE YOUNG MAN AT THE OLD NEWBURY HOME 
— LIFE AND DESTINY— 185&-1862— 1873. 

Elmer returned to Ohio early in the sea- 
son of 1858, and, as I believe, was accom- 
panied by Frances and her husband, on 
their first visit. He came back to find his 
Grandfather Hayden's home broken up, and 
his Grandmother Riddle's changed, by the 
marriage of his youngest uncle, Roswell; 
and though the Utleys and Munns were 
in their old pleasant places, for him, as for 
many, Newbury would never be what it 
had been. He spent part of the summer 
at the Little Mountain with his aunt, Mrs. 
Stocking ; went to school the ensuing win- 
ter, living with his uncle Roswell, and then, 
for a year or two, worked with his uncle 
John A. Riddle, as a carpenter and house 
joiner. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 49 

Though at maturity he was very youth- 
ful in appearance, blonde, beardless, of fine, 
pleasing face, lithe and agile. His feet 
were then disproportionately small, and his 
step so light and quick that, in walking, 
they barely seemed to touch the earth. 
Gay, frank and light spirited, of good ad- 
dress, with less polish than his father, and 
not his equal in personal advantages, though 
much resembling him, he was at once a 
favorite. Like most youths of his age, he 
was partial to the society of young women; 
modest and respectful, few were so well 
received. 

Tom Corwin tells a story of his lamb- 
kin days in Michigan, something to this 
effect, which may be mentioned. Accord- 
ing to him, there was a maiden living some 
three miles away, through the woods of 
course, upon whom he was, supposed to be 
very sweet; that while there one evening, 
in devotion to her, came a heavy fall of 
rain, which filled a pool to a deep pond, 



50 ELMER RIDDLE 

which he was obliged to cross on a slender 
pole. When half way across the pole 
broke, precipitating him in to his neck. 
As Corwin will have it, he spoiled his 
best suit of clothes, and did not further 
prosecute his suit to the young lady. The 
story is a little fishy, yet Corwin's word is 
not to be questioned, even though his 
brother did manage to put the whole bur- 
den of their common name on him. 

During all these years there was a maiden 
maturing in the old " West Part," whom 
he was early to meet, and that meeting was 
to shape two lives and destinies — for him 
the most fortunate incident in his young 
life. Surely to no man, whatever may be 
his career, can anything occur of such 
grave importance as his marriage, usually 
receiving, in a history of him, but the 
merest incidental mention. 

The Munns of ancient Wales were also 
of Monson, Mass., and of kin to the Rid- 
dles in the older generations. Marsena 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 5 1 

removed to Newbury in 1818, where he 
became a large owner of land, as he was 
the wealthiest of all the settlers of that re- 
gion. With his wife came also one son — 
Thomas Anderson — and five daughters. 
The head of the family did not long survive 
the migration. T. A. was a man of unus- 
ual ability, and cared well for the property 
and family. The girls were all attractive 
and intelligent, and all save the fourth were 
early and well married, filling worthily 
their proper places in life. The youngest, 
Emiline — by her associates called Emma — 
a tall, well formed, winsome girl, became 
the wife of Clark Robinson, Jr. 

Clark Robinson, Senior, was quite the 
first settler of the township of Russell, 
adjoining Newbury on the west, and the 
latest settled of the county of Geauga. He 
was a man of great force of character and 
enterprise, and quite successful in the ac- 
quisition of property. The eldest son, 
Clark, was the intimate friend and associate 



5 2 ELMER RIDDLE 

of J. M. Riddle, as was Emma Munn. The 
circle included Caroline Hayden, who, as 
will be remembered, was married the 23d 
of February, 1836, while Clark and Emma 
were married the 9th of the same month. 
Clark had much of the strength and force 
of character of his father, was widely 
known and much esteemed. He owned a 
fine farm on the east and west centre road, 
lying in both townships; built his house in 
Newbury, on the north side of the high- 
way, on a lovely, well chosen site, with a 
fine outlook south and southwesterly, while 
in the near distance north was the margin 
of the primitive forest. No newly married 
pair of that olden time ever commenced 
life with pleasanter surroundings and pros- 
pects more hopeful. A few years of pros- 
perity followed. To them were born three 
children — two sons and a daughter. The 
last, named Laura, for her mother's eldest 
sister, was born in this pleasant home, 
August 9th, 1 84 1. The prosperous and 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 53 

happy family were bereaved of the husband 
and father December 6th, 1848, and the 
widowed mother followed March 7th, 185 1, 
both beloved and deplored. The eldest 
son, Anson, died in his twenty-first year. 
Milton and Laura were left orphans at the 
death of their mother, the brother thirteen 
years of age and Laura ten. Laura was 
adopted by her maiden aunt, Ann, and was 
taken to the Munn homestead, where the 
venerable grandmother still survived. Here, 
in the pleasant old home among the hills, 
she grew to winsome maidenhood, carefully 
educated under the prudent but indulgent 
eyes of aunt Ann. She could scarcely be 
in better hands. The West Part abounded 
with life and bright-faced young folk, with 
whom she associated, and with some she 
grew up. There were girl cousins, the 
daughters of her uncle Anderson, a house 
full of Evans cousins, though all older, and 
several old households not yet broken and 
scattered. Tall and willowy, more comely 



54 ELMER RIDDLE 

than her mother, with less sparkle of man- 
ner, and something of the undemonstrative 
nature and ways of her father, deep and 
rich of nature, budding in that secluded and 
beautiful region, she unconsciously awaited 
what the future might bring. 

The arrival of Merrick's and Caroline's 
eldest son in the neighborhood would create 
a buzz. Inevitably he would be an object 
of interest to all young girls. He doubt- 
less knew there was such a young lady as 
Laura — may have seen her years before — 
she was an heiress. They casually saw 
each other in the street, knew each who 
the other was. They were never intro- 
duced to each other. They first met at a 
little evening party at Luke Gore's, the old 
homestead of the Uphams, in the autumn 
of 1858, and quite at once became acquaint- 
ed. He was in his twenty-second year and 
she was seventeen. The thing was inevit- 
able. He at once became a frequent 
visitor at Grandmother Munn's. The old 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 55 

lady was then near ninety, and in her re- 
gained childhood. She did not like young 
people, but took kindly to the youth. 
Aunt Ann had loved his father, and she 
very much admired his son, and he soon 
became a favorite with her. Their parents 
had been mutually bridesmaids and grooms- 
men for each other in that memorable Feb- 
ruary of 1836. They were all dead but 
Caroline; and the youth, almost the first 
thing he did when of age was to go back 
and seek this young girl in the old family 
mansion. Whoever he wooed he would be 
very sure to win. The liking was mutual, 
and the course of their true love ran 
smoothly, as true love always will, left to 
its own sweet way. They were young, 
and their formal engagement was made on 
his twenty- fourth birthday, January ioth, 
1 86 1. They also were married in February, 
the 6th day of the month, 1862. It was 
as true and happy a marriage as ever occurs 
among real youths and maidens admira- 



56 ELMER RIDDLE 

bly suited to each other. The grandmother 
had passed away, and aunt Ann made a 
famous wedding for them. The bridesmaid 
was a Miss Burnett, and Milton, the brother, 
was groomsman. The Rev. Mr. Stearns, 
the husband of the daughter of another 
branch of the Munns, officiated. It was a 
very great occasion. Aunt Ann's invita- 
tions were liberal and honored. 

The wedded lovers remained with aunt 
Ann at the old Munn home until early in 
April. The young men, Elmer and Mil- 
ton, busied themselves in placing the Rob- 
inson homestead — which, in the hands of 
renters, had become hardly habitable — in 
repair ; and here, with building birds, where 
Laura's mother began her wedded life, the 
young pair set up for themselves. 

With a choice of many homes, aunt Ann 
became an important member of the house- 
hold, which she continued to be until her 
own demise, after many years. There al- 
ready existed between her and Laura's 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 57 

young husband the affection of a mother 
and the filial regard of a son, which was to 
deepen and strengthen through the trials 
and joys which awaited them. The young 
men for a time worked the farm together, 
and Milton was also a member of the new 
household. 

The beginnings of the new brothers were 
not without difficulties. The farm, though 
very good, had been under rent ten years, 
the buildings were in ruins, the fences, as 
enclosures, had disappeared, the lands worn 
and grown up to briars and brush. Aunt 
Ann had three cows ; she purchased a horse 
and carriage, and with these they began. 
Very soon "the boys traded" Aunt Ann's 
horse "for a pair of their own," as the 
acquiescing aunt laughingly said, and so 
they had a team. Everything had to be 
renewed. The surrounding country was 
full of wealth and material; the young men 
had good credit; aunt Ann had money and 
confidence in Elmer. There were two hun- 



58 ELMER RIDDLE 

dred acres of land, nearly all improved, 
running over hills and through valleys, with 
springs and streams — a wide, dilapidated 
outline of a noble farm — that had been, and 
was again to be. At the end of a year the 
land was divided. Elmer purchased thirty 
acres of Milton, his interest in the nearly 
worthless buildings, and was soon going on 
alone. Always, everywhere, he was a 
worker, strong, deft, skilled, full of inven- 
tion, tireless, hardy, and bringing to the 
management of affairs the same skill with 
which he grasped a mechanic's tool, or the 
idea of a new machine. 

Eleven years the place was the home of 
the wedded lovers. New barns were built, 
many out-buildings restored, fences con- 
structed, orchards trimmed, fields cleared 
and renovated. The farm was stocked with 
sheep, fancy chickens, cultivated, and the 
place became a new centre, attracting friends 
and strangers. Laura was a genuine house- 
wife, deft, and a good manager. She was 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 59 

a cultivated woman, of practical views of 
life, and in manners a refined lady. 

Elmer was of poetic temperament, 
though he died unconscious of it; a keen 
observer, a lover of birds, his quick eye 
noted everything and detected its beauty, 
color and harmony. He became a reader, 
inherited musical talent from both sides of 
his family, was a good vocalist, performed 
well on the cornet and flute, was one able 
to detect and extract from the things about 
him much of the essence of their best ; yet 
he was too busy to cultivate his taste — his 
real genius for art, and such a thing as ele- 
gant leisure would never have been his. 
His relish for forest and field sports he 
sparingly indulged. Had guns. A born 
ship carpenter and sailor, he had a sailboat 
of his own construction for Punderson pond. 
To friends the renewed home, with the 
fresh young life, spirit and love which per- 
vaded it, was the most attractive and de- 
lightful place to visit. The region, in its 



60 ELMER RIDDLE 

features, was beautiful — romantically so ; 
and of soft, moonlit nights of the summer 
time, under the trees, the young master — a 
model host, with his flute or cornet, thrown 
back by the three echoes as at one point 
near the house they were, with Laura and 
the guests — formed pictures of idylic life, 
never to be forgotten by those who were 
parts of or witnesses of them. 

Of all their life, I am sure these eleven 
years were the most blessed. Here the 
two eldest daughters were born — Nellie 
June 14th, 1863. It is said that the suffer- 
ing with which the wife became a mother 
overcame the strong but too tender and 
sympathetic father, when he exhibited the 
only uncontrollable weakness of his life. 
He named the child Nellie, for his youngest 
sister. Emma, the second, first saw the 
world November 14th, 1865 ; named by 
Laura, for her own mother. The days of 
that period preceding and following this 
event remain, in the memory of the circle 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 6 1 

nearest them and by the surviving central 
personage, as especially happy. She re- 
members the many, many blessed times 
when the three echoes sent back weirdly 
the notes of Elmer's voice in song, or the 
tones of the cornet. It was always a source 
of profound regret to her that she was with- 
out musical talent. 

These days were not to always continue. 
Elmer was a successful farmer, but never 
loved farming. Though he loved the free 
outer world, the song of birds, the sum- 
mer chant of insects, knew their kinds and 
many of their ways, he loved the clangor 
and din of machinery, the noisy meetings 
of men in the busy marts and struggles in 
the competitions of life. He wanted a 
larger income, a greater activity. The farm 
was rented. He built a steam mill. 



62 ELMER RIDDLE 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE WAR— VOLUNTEERING OF THE SIX RIDDLE 
COUSINS — PEACE— THE STEAM MILI A RE- 
MOVAL—THE GIRLS NEED EDUCATION— 1873-1876. 

During these happy years had broken 
out, raged and subsided the awful war, 
which antiquated everything occurring be- 
fore it, and darkened everything happen- 
ing during its continuance. 

The Robinsons, Munns, Haydens and 
Riddles, for intelligence and consideration, 
were fairly rated with the best of their 
neighborhood. They were all Whigs, all 
anti-slavery men, all free-soilers, all Re- 
publicans. There was no exception. El- 
mer was of the advanced class. 

On the call for volunteers, at an excited 
mass meeting in Chardon, addressed by an 
uncle, the speaker and three nephews were 
enrolled in Captain George E. Paine's 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 63 

company. The public service of the uncle 
precluded his active discharge of military 
duty. Before the organization of the com- 
pany, word was received that three cousins 
in Indiana, the entire force of the Riddle 
family, had also volunteered, and it became 
a grave question whether, under the cir- 
cumstances, one of them ought not to con- 
sent to remain at home. It was decidedly 
the opinion and earnest advice of the one of 
the family, whose views were not without 
weight, that Elmer, though by age, ability 
and enterprise, the first of the six cousins, 
should be withdrawn. No commissions 
would be sought for any of them. The 
others would make equally good soldiers. 
He thought of the young girl to whom the 
young man was betrothed. He also feared 
that his adventurous spirit would for him, 
in that stage of the war, increase the haz- 
zard of the service. These reasons pre- 
vailed, and Elmer did not become a soldier. 
No young man was more active and con- 



64 ELMER RIDDLE 

tributed larger of his time and means to 
promote the Union cause. He placed a 
soldier in the ranks of the hundred day 
men, and with his rifle went with the 
"Squirrel Hunters" to defend Cincinnati 
and the Ohio frontier. 

His brother, Corwin, was in Ohio at the 
time, and became a member of the Seventh 
Ohio for both terms — the three months, 
the three years, and for the war. It was 
the testimony of the officers that he was 
one of the best, hardiest and most reliable 
soldiers of that hard-fighting, hard-march- 
ing, hard-suffering regiment, that was al- 
ways certain to be put into the hottest 
place. 

General Tyler, its first colonel, said that 
no matter how exhausting was the march, 
"Tom Riddle was always one to stack 
arms at the final halt. Taciturn aud shy, 
when the boys were all exhausted and 
silent, Tom opened out with some dry 
quaint words that were sent back along the 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 6$ 

weary line, arousing the spirits of the 
drooping soldiers." He was severely 
wounded at the bloody battle of Cedar 
Mountain, and did his best to prevent the 
useless exposure of Colonel Creighton and 
Colonel Crane at Lookout Mountain, was 
just in advance of them when they were 
shot down. Mounted and conspicuous 
they were killed, while he and most of 
the boys survived the final struggle as 
victors. 

Clarence Riddle, son of J. A. Riddle, 
served first in the three months infantry, 
and then in a battery through the war. 
He brought off his gun in the first day of 
disaster, at Stone River, and did what he 
might in the glorious second day of blood 
and victory. 

Albert G.R. Clark, Minerva Riddle's son, 
volunteered in Indiana, was pronounced 
unfit for duty, went east, entered a New 
Jersey regiment, where they were less par- 
ticular, and passed muster. He became 



66 ELMER RIDDLE 

hardy, was brave, and went through the 
war to be discharged at Washington. 

Frank and Darius, only sons of Almon 
and Caroline Riddle, both volunteered at 
the beginning of the war. Darius was lost 
early in the southwest, and Frank served 
in the artillery with courage, skill and fidel- 
ity. The boys were all faithful to duty ; 
none of them were ever disciplined, and 
all fought as private soldiers through the 
war, though doubtless commissions might 
have been secured for some of them. 
Frank and Clarence were unusually bright 
spirited and intelligent young men, while 
young Clark was well educated, with ability 
to fill any position. 

Corwin came out with a ruined constitu- 
tion and shattered health, and had no diffi- 
culty in securing a pension. 

The war, with its clouds and shadows, its 
"garments rolled in blood," passed away, 
and the summer and autumn preceding the 
birth of Emma, as stated, was a specially 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 6j 

happy season for Elmer and Laura. Grand- 
mother Riddle spent some weeks with them, 
and they visited the old homestead, some 
four miles from their own house. 

The steam mill enterprise was under- 
taken in connection with William C. Hodges, 
grandson of Hamilton Utley, and so the 
young men were of kin. It was erected 
near the centre of Newbury, and necessi- 
tated a removal from the dear and happy 
home, which, to the wife, aunt Ann and 
children, was a sore trial. All, perhaps, 
expected that the absence would be tempo- 
rary. The change was made in 1873 to 
the centre of Newbury, occupying the old 
Willoughby house, now the residence of 
the Blairs. It was not then a pleasant res- 
idence for any of them. There came an- 
other sore trial ; the loved and faithful 
aunt Ann fell sick, and suffered from a long, 
baffling and severe illness, never fully recov- 
ered from, and for many weeks the young 
man devoted his days to his machinery and 



68 ELMER RIDDLE 

his nights to the care of aunt Ann, till 
Laura, learning that he fell asleep one day 
while tending the great circle saw, forbade 
his devoting his nights to the sick woman. 
Later he moved the older of the two houses 
from the farm to a convenient site near the 
mill, which made a comparatively pleasant 
home for the family. He sold his interest 
in the mill and box factory, which had been 
attached, early in 1876. 

The three years devoted to this business 
were years of intense activity and constant 
labor. He was the mechanic, spirit and 
manager of the enterprise, and himself run 
the six foot circular saw, cared for all the 
machinery, and attended to most of the 
outside business. His methods of work 
were his father's, giving all the daylight to 
the machinery and the nights to rapid jour- 
neys in the performance of necessary affairs 
which called him away. 

In the hands of the two men the steam 
mill was fairly successful. One thing was 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 6g 

against them — most of the desirable timber 
common to the forest had disappeared, and 
under the demands for the mill, what was 
left, secured at increasing labor and ex- 
pense, was rapidly exhausted. 

There were other considerations demand- 
ing the young man's attention. The girls 
were passing childhood, and needed better 
facilities for education, more refined sur- 
roundings and associations. The popula- 
tion of the township had been diminishing 
for years. Families had moved away, the 
young men sought employments elsewhere, 
and the once populous and busy Newbury 
was becoming a solitude. There were few 
children, widely scattered, and though the 
school fund was liberal, the schools dwin- 
dled, became feeble and inefficient. Elmer 
was quite the first to grasp and solve the 
difficulty: Erect buildings at the centre, 
organize a school under competent teach- 
ers, and assemble all the pupils at one 
place. The expense of transportation in 



f6 ELMER RIDDLE 

the now open, improved country, and good 
roads, would be comparatively slight. He 
agitated it from the day that Nell approached 
the educational period, but ineffectively. 
His daughters were now at an age when 
their education and future were a matter of 
the first consideration. 

He had for some time determined to fix 
himself, family and business in the town of 
Chardon, and purchased the lot there, upon 
which he afterward built his beautiful resi- 
dence on Court street. He also secured 
land for a lumber yard, and later the site 
of his shops and machinery, near the rail- 
road station. Early in May, 1876, he trans- 
ferred his family to Chardon, living tempo- 
rarily near his new purchase until his house 
was ready to receive him. 

In the meantime there had been some 
goings and comings between Ohio and 
Michigan. Elmer's mother, Caroline, 
visited them in the fall of 1862, accom- 
panied by Laura, who remained a year, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 7 1 

and her brother accompanied her home in 
August, 1863. In September, 1869, El- 
mer and Laura, taking the girls, Nell and 
Emma, made a three weeks visit to Mich- 
igan, at the homestead of the Riddle-Moul- 
throps, and also at Zilwaukie, the home of 
Frances and Philo Stafford. This was the 
longest time during all these busy years 
that these two were absent from home. 

In 1 87 1 Charles M., the youngest brother, 
joined them in Ohio, and was a member of 
their family for the six or seven succeeding 
years. There was also some visiting from 
Corwin after the war. 

In the summer of 1876 Elmer purchased 
his first lumber, shingles, etc., which were 
made at Zilwaukie, of Rust & Co., whose 
great mills and salt works at that place 
were under the superintendency of Philo 
Stafford. The next year Elmer and Laura 
made another visit to Michigan, in the 
summer, and spent a week at Point Look- 
out, on Lake Huron, with Frances, her 



72 ELMER RIDDLE 

children, and sister Laura. That was a 
memorable week, where they had a taste 
of camp life. This is quite up with the 
current events of our narrative. 

Elmer once had a project of setting up 
mills near the Mississippi, in Missouri, a 
region of which he had heard — perhaps 
from Milton, who was a wide wanderer — 
and was said to abound in fine timber. 
He visited it in 1866 or 1867, going to St. 
Louis and Cairo, but did not find the pro- 
ject sufficiently attractive to undertake. 

In the winter of 1877-78 he found time 
to visit the Capital, where an uncle resided 
and where he spent a week, seeing and 
taking note of everything, carrying away 
correct and vivid impressions of the men, 
life and things of Washington. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, 73 



CHAPTER V. 

BUSY LIFE— BUILDING— NEW BUSINESS— LAURA 
—THE GIRLS— VISITING— VISITORS— 1876— 1883. 

Early in May, '76, the family made its 
last removal, and was temporarily housed 
in Chardon. Charles was an important 
member of it at the time. That was one 
of the busiest years of a busy life. The 
next was like it. This had the burden of 
a grief — a loss — made sad by the death of 
the faithful, tender, self-sacrificing aunt 
Ann, who passed away June 23, 1877. 
They laid her with the Munns in that lonely 
place of burial, where sleep Utleys, Rid- 
dles, Haydens, Uphams — oh ! so many 
dear old cherished names of the first New- 
bury. 

In the spring of 1878 was commenced 
the erection of the new homestead, on the 



74 ELMER RIDDLE 

side hill, looking west, which was graded, 
and the foundations laid of hewn stone to 
endure. It is a wooden structure of beau- 
tiful proportions, admirably planned, and 
built, with ornamentation which attracts 
and satisfies the eye of art and taste. The 
plan was the owner's, much of the work 
he did, and everything was fitted to its 
place by his hand or supervision. The 
building was in every way a labor of love, 
and the family took possession of it the 
1 2th of November, 1878. Mortie Stafford, 
Frances' oldest son, was then with them. 

This summer — one of building — Elmer 
built his yacht, a beautiful five-ton sloop- 
rigged boat, which he launched on Bass 
Lake,* where he already had a sail and 
row boat. The larger craft was the wonder 
of the region, and has been pronounced a 
fine piece of naval architecture, designed 
and constructed by the owner's hand. He 

* Phebus ! what a name. A lovely little lake. We used 
to call it Monson Pond, in true New England way. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. ?$ 

named it for his brother Charles. In Sep- 
tember of that year he, with Ledyard 
Phelps, made a voyage from Fairport to 
Kelley's Island in her, where they were 
weather-bound by the equinoctial storm. 
From Sandusky Bay he returned with an 
ague, and for the first time in his life had a 
doctor called. Once afterward he had a 
temporary illness, caused by drinking water, 
on some forest excursion, in which autumn 
leaves had been saturated. 

The lumber trade, to which he added a 
coal yard, though he monopolized the bus- 
iness in both branches, did not afford suffi- 
cient scope for his activity, and in 1880 he 
established his handle factory planers and , 
other machinery. 

This involved a sale of the Robinson 
homestead, and was a severe test of the 
love, confidence and old-time association in 
the heart of Laura. It was endeared to 
her by every memory and sentiment of 
life. Her father built the home there; it 



y6 ELMER RIDDLE 

was to this her mother went a bride ; her 
brothers, herself, were born and for their 
early years reared there; there both her 
parents died, and were buried from it ; it 
was her bridal home ; her children were 
born there; it was the scene of her hap- 
piest years ; every fibre of her rich, silent 
nature was intertwined in and with it; it 
was her's, that which secured her compe- 
tence ; was a beautiful — a lovely place; 
she heard the complaining voices of its weird 
echoes calling her home to it, and had 
unconsciously cherished the hope of re- 
turning to it. The sale was her act ; the 
matter was submitted to her without a word 
of urging or solicitation, and silently, with 
dropping tears, she set her hand to the 
instrument which made the loved place the 
property of the stranger. 

Its bird songs, its mimic voices, were 
dear to Elmer. He shared in his wife's 
regrets. The iron clangor of busy ma- 
chinery was dearer, more musical to him, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. JJ 

so curiously was his poetic temperament 
endowed. The farm was sold, the new 
works erected, and set in motion. The 
owner purchased, set up and run his own 
machinery. A few months' observation and 
care enabled him to make more than one 
important improvement, both in the ma- 
chinery and methods of working it, while 
he devised several aiding appliances. The 
principle and capacity of machinery he saw 
at once — its complete or imperfect adapta- 
tion to the thing to be wrought by it, and 
in what it could be improved. 

He had one quality of an artist — he 
loved his work, his machinery, its noise 
and motion, its product, loved to tend and 
care for it, loved the life and activity it re- 
quired ; and this demand was a constant 
employment of all his energies at their 
best. The machinery was to be cared for, 
men hired, overseen, timber to be hunted 
up, purchased, cut and brought to the 
shops, a market found, freights and bills 



yS ELMER RIDDLE 

looked to, and weekly, daily payments to 
be made. 

The three succeeding years were a rest- 
less, constant, hopeful, high-hearted, cheer- 
ful struggle. 

"It seemed," says the nearest one, "as 
if he knew his time was short, and the 
utmost must be crowded into it. Apparent- 
ly, he was bringing his business within his 
grasp; began to indulge us — the girls and 
myself — in little ways and things. Took 
little bits of time for himself. The girls 
were out of school, would help us both, 
and he was making little plans for us, pleas- 
ant excursions. Though always cheerful 
and hopeful, he grew more so. I was ever 
watchful — ever trying to save him, in every 
way ; have him save himself. He would 
say : ' There is so much that must be done, 
and no one will do it but me;' and so he 
went on, brave and cheerful, till — " 

Two of his uncles had lived in Chardon; 
three of his aunts, younger sisters of his 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 79 

mother, resided there when, with his fam- 
ily, he went there to live. He was him- 
self well and favorably known there, and 
took his place in the community, which 
estimated him something at his real 
value. As a man and a citizen, he at once 
identified himself in all respects with the 
place, and though singularly without per- 
sonal ambition, he came to be recognized 
as a leading and valuable citizen. He was 
a strong acquisition to the place, was its 
first and most active business man. It had 
never had but one or two comparable with 
him, and though using more capital, none 
had a more secure grasp of details, odds 
and ends, upon which so much depends. 
Laura was devoted to her house, children, 
and, above all, to her husband, who never 
got beyond or fell below the lover, in devo- 
tion and sentiment. She at once took her 
proper place as one of the best esteemed 
of the younger matrons of the town. The 
girls became young ladies, intelligent and 



80 ELMER RIDDLE 

attractive, growing and going forward in 
the admirable schools of the village, where 
the eldest graduated in 1882 and Emma in 
1883. 

Several little things occurred in these 
later years that brightened the lives of the 
husband and wife. They had a week at 
Chautauqua, made a trip to New York 
City, went down the Hudson and out to 
Long Branch for a view of the ocean, which 
was disappointing to both, as it always is 
to the expectant at the first beholding. 
Shore and sea, land and water, fresh or salt, 
whether lake or ocean, when extending be- 
yond utmost vision, or otherwise, are so 
alike that the sea always suffers by the 
inevitable likeness. It is only to one of 
longer acquaintance that the ocean reveals 
its grandeur. Elmer saw a porpoise in the 
sound, and was thankful for the sight as 
for a rare personal favor. 

There were also goings to Michigan and 
to Kelley's Island. There were visits from 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 8 1 

Frances, from Mortie, the cultivated neph- 
ew, from Charles and his wife and baby, 
from their Pa. home ; from the Washington 
relatives; and 1880 was notable for the visit 
of the eldest surviving Riddle from Indiana 
— Uncle Almon, who had not been in Ohio 
since Elmer's birth. With him came the 
only sister of his father, aunt Minerva, 
now an elderly lady. He met them at 
Painesville, and gave them a lovely ride 
over the old hills between Painesville and 
Chardon, so like the native New England. 
The house and home were a most charm- 
ing place to visit, and to these, long absent 
ones, this son of the favorite brother, this 
daughter of Emma Munn, and their bright, 
gay hearted daughters, were persons of the 
greatest interest. Indeed, while there, the 
house was the rendezvous of all of the bear- 
ers of the family name surviving — except 
John, Corwin and Clarence — of the older 
set and many of the younger. So there 
were visits from the younger sisters, Cora 



82 ELMER RIDDLE 

and Mary Moulthrop, who shared their 
mother's personal advantages in her youth. 

On the 13th of March, 1882, was born 
to them the third daughter, to whom her 
father gave the name of Alice, borne by a 
girl cousin of his. He was especially glad 
and happy over the advent of this child — 
the brightest and most knowing of animat- 
ed clay, and among the tiniest who suc- 
cessfully pass the first strait of babyhood. 
She became at once a great favorite, and 
grew in his love and regards much more 
rapidly than in girdle and stature. Indeed, 
he always regarded himself most fortunate 
that his children were all daughters. 

And so these years ran on. Prosperity 
attended him, all his surroundings were 
pleasant. He was more and more enabled 
to indulge the young ladies, surround them 
with tasteful and beautiful things. Laura's 
health, which had long been an object of 
much care and anxiety, was quite restored. 
He was enabled to find some relaxation, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 83 

purchased a new fowling-piece of the latest 
pattern, and occasionally had a day with it, 
sometimes with Mr. Kile, the husband of 
Kate Hathaway, a favorite cousin. He 
made excursions in his boat at Bass Lake, 
and the tide seemed in his favor, and rising. 

Two events saddened him — the death of 
his aunt, Sarah Hathaway, and the death 
of Forrester Bruce, husband of his aunt 
Laura. He was much attached to them 
both, and seldom a Sunday passed without 
a visit to each of their houses — companion- 
ship not supplied to him during the residue 
of his life. 

The summer of 1883 ran its quick, bright 
way. Mortimer was managing a business 
at Kelley's Island; with him were Corwin 
and his wife. They would be visited in 
late September. The girls were going also, 
and would remain a little time. They all 
went, the parents returning separately — 
Elmer first — they leaving the young ladies 
with their friends. The three last weeks, 



84 ELMER RIDDLE 

save little Alice, they were alone — the 
longest time in their married life they had 
thus been unsurrounded by others. These 
were pleasant autumn days, and pleasantly 
passed by them. He had some time before 
set up a telephone between the house and 
office, by which he was ever sending mes- 
sages to her when engaged there, and re- 
ceiving back her woman's answers. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 8$ 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE END— THE LAST DAY— LAST WORDS— FINAL 
LEAVE-TAKING— THE TELEGRAM— A WRINGING 
OF HANDS— LAURA— BABY ALICE— THE CALL- 
PLACE OF BURIAL— DR. CONE— THE FUNERAL 
— DR CONE'S ADDRESS— KINDRED HANDS LAY 
HIM TO REST. 

Time ran on to mid October. The for- 
est trees — maples, hickories, tuliptrees and 
beeches — were in their autumn robes of gold 
and crimson, russet and soft browns ; the 
air soft and sensuous. Elmer was not very 
busy, and remained at the house quite all 
the forenoon of that Friday, doing some 
needful thing for his wife, who, as it hap- 
pened, was also employed in making some 
wished for change in a garment of his. It 
was an especially pleasant forenoon, this 
sweet lingering near each other. He finally 
went down to the office, going without his 
coat, as he often did, when for a temporary 



S6 ELMER RIDDLE 

visit. To parting word of Laura, as he 
left the house, he answered back "all 
right," and went with his light, springy 
step, clippingly down the plank walk, meet- 
ing and answering passers along the way, 
calling to the children at play, saying pleas- 
ant words to the housewives at their doors 
as he passed. 

Something he found at the office — some 
freights at Painesville required attention. 
He sent a message over the wires to Laura 
— he was going to Painesville. The mixed 
train — passenger and freight — stood on the 
track, headed north, and throwing on a 
coarse, soiled coat of one of his workmen, 
as the train moved off he stepped on board. 

That was his last leave-taking of Laura 
and baby Alice, to whom he was devoted 
all the morning, as ever, when in the house. 
The last sounds of dear familiar things as 
he left was the clangor of his blind, un- 
knowing machinery — he knowing as little 
what was so near. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 8? 

He should return on the first train back. 
He did. 

A little after noon a telegram came up 
from Painesville. There was a great ado ; 
Chardon had never received such a bolt. 
Men, women and children, crying and 
wringing their hands, hurried to the station, 
not knowing, not understanding, at the first. 
Elmer Riddle was dead — killed by the cars 
at Painesville. Laura had to be told it. 

Sure enough, he came back on the first 
train, as he said. 

The exact details were not known — never 
will be. It matters nothing. I would not 
set them down here if I knew them. My 
page shall have no needless ghastliness. 
He would not dwell on the details. This 
only: at the Painesville station the loco- 
motive was detached, the train slowed, he 
stepped upon the platform cars, was in 
some inscrutable way thrown from them, 
and the wheels of one, at least, passed 
over him on the track, 



88 ELMER RIDDLE 

This we know, the lithest and most 
active of men, as well as the coolest, the 
fall must have rendered him unconscious, 
or he would have saved himself. 

''Oh, he saved the lives of others, and 
there was no one to save him !" was the 
heart-broken exclamation when the story 
was told to her. 

For the time Chardon was overcome by 
the shock. 

And Laura! calm, pale, tearless for 
many hours, running on mechanically for 
the time, with just an expression in the 
eyes never seen before, going automatically 
about, benumbed, in an awful dream. Her 
husband's broken form, with but a small 
bruise over one brow to mar the face, com- 
posed as in sleep, was extended in the par- 
lor ; at first the wonder of baby Alice, that 
he should sleep there, and so long. She 
stole to him again and again, stepping 
lightly, so as not to wake him, until in 
some inscrutable way her baby brain was 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 89 

possessed with the impression of wrong, loss, 
bereavement. She still looks for him, still 
listens for his voice, goes to the magic tele- 
phone and listens intently. Strangely gifted 
child; his child — could have been born of no 
other father ; slight, elfin, seeing and know- 
ing things from her first day of life not 
known to others. 

There was a flashing of the wires to Kel- 
ley's Island, to Michigan, to Pennsylvania, 
to Washington. Mortie came down with 
Nellie and Emma — poor children, who did 
not come to a knowledge of the worst until 
near home. Frances and Philo hurried 
from Zilwaukic ; Charles came from Penn- 
sylvania, the uncle from Washington, the 
uncle from Newbury, and Corwin from the 
Island. 

These awful days are not to be dwelt on, 
though the shadow of their catastrophe 
reached backward and hovered over me 
along the way of this slight sketch — that 
would hurry forward to the inevitable. 



gO ELMER RIDDLE 

On the following Sunday, in a pitiless 
rain, Laura went to the cemetry to choose 
the place where she would bury her hus- 
band — not in dear old Newbury — he must 
lie near her. On Monday came Munns 
and Robinsons and Haydens and Riddles 
and Utleys. In the early days, united, 
they were a strong body ; now broken and 
sad, what were left came. Came old friends 
from the old family seats, gathered to the 
burying of him, largely the pride of the 
whole circle, on that Monday at mid day. 
He died the 12th ; the funeral was the 15th. 
Cold and rainy — the rain came with the 
weepers on Saturday night, and continued 
all Sunday. Monday morning was dark, 
rainy and cheerless, and brought with it the 
breath of the not distant winter. But the 
storm ceased and the clouds broke, as if to 
give this loved one a sunny burying, as was 
fit. 

The services were simple and felt to be 
especially beautiful and impressive. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 9 1 

Dr. Cone, President of Buchtel College, 
arrived on Saturday evening, the personal 
friend of Elmer, and between them was 
not only much liking, but much mutual 
admiration. Though their pursuits in life, 
their culture, was as unlike as might be, 
Elmer fully appreciated the talents, attain- 
ments and felicitous powers of his friend, 
who in turn admired the manly character, 
the sparkling intellect, and vivacious spirit, 
courage and energy of the mechanic. They 
were nearly of the same age, and in their 
general views and temperaments greatly 
sympathized. 

Dr. Cone conducted the services of the 
funeral; was especially happy in his ap- 
proach to the unseen Father. After the 
hymn, with his fine and impressive elocu- 
tion, he spoke as follows : 

REV. DR. CONE'S ADDRESS. 

Death has always been regarded with superstitious terror 
as the inveterate enemy of mankind. The pallida Mors of 
the ancients was a dreaded deity of the under world, the 



92 ELMER RIDDLE 

offspring of night without a sire, whom art rarely ventured to 
represent, and whose visage was never stamped on coins and 
amulets. And it is no wonder that death is thus regarded 
with a shudder, for she comes to us arrayed in mystery, ap- 
proaching with noiseless step, like the descent of darkness 
and the night, to execute her remorseless mission. This in- 
exorable reign of death over all flesh excites a superstitious 
dread in its presence as the most inscrutable mystery of 
existence, which our bravest hope and our most tenacious 
faith are unable to overcome. We shudder at the separ- 
ation. Fondly we cling to life in spite of its sorrows and 
its tears. We love the earth out of which our bodies have 
sprung and part of which we are. We are held to our fel- 
low men by the mighty attraction of fellowship and sym- 
pathy, by the memory of many a conflict and many a victory 
in which we have shared with them. Home, with its peace, 
its repose and its hallowed ministries of affection, binds us 
as with threads of gold. And that man must have been em- 
bittered at the very fountains of his life by misfortune, 
broken-hearted by grief and an outcast without experience 
of the soft touch of charity or the healing ministry of pity, 
who can welcome in death the dissolution of the ties which 
bind him to mankind. 

There is a terror, too, in the cessation of the activities of 
life, in the stopping of the heart, the changed face, the 
vacancy of the eye, the prostrate and inanimate form ; that 
going forth of the life into the unknown, whither our pas- 
sionate love is unable to follow and whence our cries cannot 
call it back. There is a dread of falling into non-existence, 
or of entering upon a mode of being by us untried, and of 
which no returning, friendly spirit has brought us tidings. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFfi. 93 

These are some of the natural terrors of death, yet terrors 
which are not altogether invincible to a merely human phil- 
osophy. For it requires but a little reflection to teach us 
that death is not so hideous as our fear represents it. We 
see it to be the common fortune of our humanity which must 
at some time befall us all. It belongs to the great economy 
of nature, which our experience teaches us to regard as on 
the whole beneficent. It becomes a coveted boon when the 
brain is weary and the heart is sick, and we go stooping 
under the burdens which we can no longer bear. Life is no 
more sweet to us when hope is dead, and existence has 
waned and sunken into a fast-fading memory. The earth is 
not now so beautiful to us when our sated senses have lost 
their once keen relish of its delights, and we no longer 
shudder at the thought of giving back our broken bodies 
to 'the embrace of this common mother of our kind. 
The charmed circle of social relations has lost the attraction 
with which it once held our souls, when we have seen the 
hearts of some grow cold, of others turn false or treacherous, 
while others still, true and much-lamented, have gone down 
into the night towards which we are fast hastening on. 
Even home, which had lent to life its sweetness and to earth 
its beauty, no longer binds us as with threads of gold, when 
we have seen the loved and loving fall a prey to death, or, 
wide disperse, leaving us alone by the fading embers and the 
deserted hearth. 

But theology has added a new terror to death by its doc- 
trine of the future life. After having supplemented the 
natural hope in immortality by an authoritative dogma, it 
has pronounced that immortality a curse to the vast majority 
of mankind, and made the lingering ages of eternity hideous 



<M 



ELMER RIDDLE 



with the blasphemies of the children of God against their 
Father. Through the popular doctrine of probation, the 
great multitude of theologians declare that death is not 
simply a crisis of mortality, but a crisis in the eternal fortune 
of the soul. To the man, they declare, that dies "unregen- 
erate," the door of opportunity shall be forever closed. He 
shall not pursue righteousness, however strongly he may 
desire it. His fate is fixed by the arbitral y decree of Om- 
nipotence. All his life of virtue, all his morality exercised on 
earth shall avail nothing forever if death shall have surprised 
him before he shall have comprehended and accepted the 
orthodox atonement and been blessed with the " imputed 
righteousness" of Christ. Or man has been cursed in his 
creation, at the very root of his nature, with such a fatal 
tendency to evil and such a hopeless infirmity of will, that 
the eternal ruin of the most is a foregone conclusion. This 
is the frightful tenor of death to the dying and to those 
whom they leave on earth to mourn, that it includes the an- 
nihilation of freedom and the eternal fixity of character. 
And this is proclaimed as the "good news" of the Christ ! 
I do not hesitate to say that such a doctrine makes God a 
capricious tyrant and man a most pitiful subject of a most 
pitiless rule. And (let the truth be spoken) to stand in the 
mute presence of grief, before the afflicted and broken- 
hearted, in the office of a Christian comforter, with this mess- 
age of despair upon the lips, is a mockery both of God and 
man. 

No man could be more intensely antagonistic to this creed 
than was my friend, in whose behalf I speak to-day. And 
in the presence of the kindred and friends of Elmer Riddle, 
in the presence of this pathetic image of death, I feel called 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 95 

upon to protest against such a doctrine which would con- 
demn him, who could not, without doing violence to his 
reason and his sense of right, accept the theological atone- 
ment, to eternal reprobation and hopeless infamy. And I 
think, if this doctrine were true, then, in that other world, no 
"great gulf" would be wide or deep enough to prevent him 
from asserting the claims of that reason and moral sense be- 
fore the Supreme tribunal; and that, animated by his mighty 
love of justice, he would lead a legion of kindred spirits to 
storm the very gates of heaven and demand, in tones that 
would resound through the realms of bliss, the right to be 
righteous. And what shall we say of a heaven in which such 
a demand would not call forth a responsive shout of joy over 
repentant sinners, which would be heard even to the realms 
below? What shall we say of "saints in glory" who, on 
hearing such a clamor without, would not cease from wor- 
ship, cast down their harps and crowns at the foot of the 
throne and cry aloud that they were not worthy to honor 
with praises the All-merciful until they had been permitted 
to speed with hurrying wing to open the golden gates to 
those urgent souls ? 

We are compelled, then, to say that there is no consol- 
ation in death apart from a belief in a God of justice and 
love. Belief in such a Being carries with it the belief in an 
immortality of opportunity and hope for every soul. Not to 
believe in God is to abandon hope for man ; is to regard him 
as born to the crudest of fortunes — a waif cast out upon im- 
mensity without a purpose ; an orphan without a home ; a 
mortal soul with aspirations after moral perfection and 
spiritual beauty, which prove to be only will-o'-the-wisps 
leading him astray in pathless swamps, where he sinks down 



9 6 



ELMER RIDDLE 



at last, leaving nothing but the echo of a sigh; an abortive 
effort of nature to create a wondrous being whose penetrat- 
ing intellect should discover her secrets, formulate her laws, 
and become master of her mighty forces, only to be over- 
come at the end in the hopeless struggle with fate, and per- 
ish like a beast. 

No ! The reason of man cannot accept this atheistic 
creed. " Hope springs eternal in the human breast," and 
neither reason nor hope can tolerate this wretched inscription 
of Ingersollian despair over the threshold of existence: "Life 
is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two 
eternities. In vain we strive to look beyond the heights. 
We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing 
cry." Rather let it be said that life is a narrow vale between 
the luminous peaks of two eternities. Here storm and sun- 
shine prevail with alternate sway. Our pathway leads now 
down into the sunless depths of sorrow and of conflict, now 
up to radiant heights of vision and of victory. The peaks of 
the eternity which is to come are lighted up with a glow of 
promise and of prophecy which is reflected back upon the 
peaks of the eternity which is past. Thus hope is written in 
characters of light upon the two mysteries — the mystery out 
of which we come forth, and the mystery into which we go 
away. 

I know not with what words I ought to address you who 
to-day mourn the loss of the husband and the father. My- 
self a mourner at the bier of my friend, I realize the futility 
of all formal attempts at consolation. This terrible visita- 
tion of sudden death, by which a man is stricken down in 
the flush of life and activity, overwhelms the heart and bids 
defiance to speech. We are all mourners here to-day, for 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 97 

this man had won all our hearts by the genial and sun ny 
quality of his character. He was fair and open as the morn- 
ing, honest as the sun. Fearless and aggressive, he was al- 
ways kind and considerate. He was one of the few men 
who can boldly express their opinions without wounding the 
sensibilities of any. His creed was to know and love the 
truth, and to follow it without fear or favor. He feared 
nothing but falsehood and hypocrisy. He believed in justice, 
and in its final triumph his faith never faltered. In his 
home, where he was the kindest of husbands and fathers, 
may his memory be a benediction ! In the community, 
where his activity touched so many interests, may his manly 
life and example be an inspiration ! 

And then the two old uncles, Roswell 
and Albert ; the two brothers, Corwin and 
Charles, bore the casket out, followed by 
Laura and the girls. The procession moved 
through the sorrowing village to the open 
grave, and the Riddles lowered their dead 
to his final rest, and that was the end. 

Note. — There have been several sudden, tragic deaths in 
the Riddle family. Thomas Riddle died after a three or four 
days' illness, at 42 ; Meirick, after an illness nearly as brief, 
at 46 ; W. H . Harrison Riddle at 24, of brain fever ; George 
W. Riddle at 20, of the same trouble. These were younger 
brothers of Merrick. Since the death of Elmer, Lance 
Clark, youngest son of Minerva Riddle Clark, died of brain 
fever, at 22. These youths were all of exceptional promise, 
and died of over-study as the primal cause, as was supposed, 
each dying within a week's apparent illness. 



98 ELMER RIDDLE 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONCLUSION— PERSONAL QUALITIES— COURAGE- 
COOLNESS— INSTANCES— EDUCATION— SAW ALL 
THERE WAS IN THINGS— THEIR VALUE TO HIM 
—KNOWLEDGE OF BIRDS— POWER OVER MEN- 
GENIUS FOR MECHANICS— A GOOD SPEAKER- 
HOME CHARACTERISTICS— ESTIMATE OF HIM. 

The hand which has drawn this slight 
sketch is of kin to the subject. Should it 
fall under the eye of a stranger, he might 
esteem and excuse it, as florid, and too ap- 
preciative, while to those for whom it is 
written it will appear too subdued and col- 
orless, as to him under whose eyes it takes 
form. 

Some lines are still needful to its com- 
pletion. 

Elmer Riddle, as stated, was slightly 
below medium height, and at the first 
glance, slightly formed. His usual weight 
was about 145 pounds, without a grain of 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 99 

adipose matter. No member of any of the 
families which contributed to his structure 
ever had a tendency in that direction, save, 
possibly, his grandmother Hayden. He 
was of almost perfect form, and endued 
with unusual vigor and strength, which his 
compact structure enabled him to employ, 
on the slightest notice, at once, and effec- 
tively. That he was fearless in the sense 
of seeing at once all the danger, and means 
of meeting it, with interpidity which arose 
to the heroic, was tested on many minor 
occasions. 

An aged man fell under the moving cars 
at Painesville. Many saw him, and were 
appalled by the certainty of his being 
crushed. Elmer, by a cool dash of courage, 
strength and agility, saved him, and es- 
caped with the slightest injury himself. 
Nor did it occur to him that it was much of 
a thing to do, as for him it was not. 

A sail boat, in the hands of "lubbers," 
was overset on Bass Lake, one Sunday morn- 



100 ELMER RIDDLE 

ing, and as seemed, none of the four or 
five on board her could swim. Most of 
them caught secure hold of her, and es- 
caped immediate danger. One, an elderly 
man, failed to secure such support. It was 
at a point quite across from the landing, 
where a score of men and boys witnessed 
the accident, and there were drawn up on 
the little sandy beach half a dozen light 
boats, dorys, punts and skiffs. 

Elmer came driving over ''The Island," 
as it is still called, caught a glimpse of the 
capsized boat, the men hanging to it, and 
the helpless old man. He sprang from his 
moving carriage, shoved off a light boat, 
leaped into her as she ran out, and with 
the oars in his powerful trained hands, 
traversed half the watery waste before the 
frightened spectators on land had recovered 
their faculties. He sent his flashing boat 
to the point where the drowning man sank, 
and in time to reach and save him. It was 
the most obvious thing in the world to do, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 161 

and he incurred very little risk in doing it; 
but the ordinary men present did not un- 
dertake it. On the contrary, some of them 
turned and went into the house to escape 
the sight of the man drowning, whom they 
never thought of trying to rescue. Elmer 
was a man born to do things, and did them 
wherever and whenever they came to his 
hand. 

The likeness which faces the title page 
was taken on his fortieth birthday. While 
it brings out his sharply cut features in 
outline, it gives no idea of the breadth and 
beauty of his brow and superbly formed 
head, nor the light of his fine eyes. It 
was a head always carried well up, in un- 
conscious dignity, and held a fine fibered 
brain, such as few men are endowed with. 
One can but wish that it had received the 
impulse and direction of a better'early edu- 
cation, a term we erroneously apply to the 
training, pupils receive at school. Their 
real education comes from the outside 



102 ELMER RIDDLE 

world, and their mingling in it. What the 
schools give are the best means of render- 
ing this after education the best and most 
effective, furnishing the faculties with the 
training, power and polish, perhaps, so 
effective in getting from the world and 
actual life their best — culture and prac- 
tical acquisition. Elmer owed little to 
school and books. He became a reader of 
newspapers, and of a few books. He caught 
ideas and thought from those about him, 
and corrected their errors as he might. He 
was eminently practical, and from a child 
began to do the things which came to his 
hand, and so he continued to do. Books 
were but sparingly mixed with them. His 
apprehension was uncommonly quick. 

He had the rare power of seeing things, of 
seeing all there was in them, which more 
common men fail to see. Many things 
were much more to him than to others ; 
they meant more ; he got more out of them 
than do men usually. He was always glad 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 103 

to have seen the Mississippi ; it was a per- 
manent possession. Though disappointed, 
it was a great thing to him to see the ocean, 
to see a porpoise in the sound. He re- 
joiced that he had seen New York, the 
great city; Chicago, the wonderful city; 
St. Louis, Cincinnati ; had sailed the great 
lakes, had seen the Capital, all the noble 
public buildings, the two Houses^of Con- 
gress, the Supreme Court, the President at 
home. Things — ordinary things — were 
more to him than to the average man, 
though he said little of even the extraordi- 
nary. Travel to such a man, such a mind, 
such observation, with its grasp of things, 
was more than to most — was everything. 

It has been noted that he was especially 
alive to the aspects of the natural world. 
Spending all his childhood in the woods, 
in the presence of primitive, scarcely 
touched nature, with the poetic tempera- 
ment and keen senses, he was peculiarly 
apt in noting her works and the ways of 



104 ELMER RIDDLE 

her children. Though he had scarcely any 
aid from books, he knew all the birds, their 
notes, the color of their plumage, male and 
female, their times of coming and going, 
mode of building their nests, and some- 
thing of their habits. So of insects, espec- 
ially the musical ones. Had observed 
spiders, their method of floating out and 
attaching their lines and webs, knew of all 
the smaller animals, the life, spirit and ways 
of the great forests, their voices and haunts. 
He especially liked the books of John 
Burroughs, particularly his first, "Wake 
Robin," and doubtless got many valuable 
helps and suggestions'from him. I do not 
know as he ever read Thoreau. I doubt 
whether he would have liked him. Tho- 
reau's love of nature was rather the love of 
a savage, cynical and misanthropic ; he 
contemned the ways and lives of average 
civilization. 

Elmer loved all these, loved men, women, 
children ; liked the warm breathing, gentle, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 105 

human association of his kind. Loved the 
appliances, the improvements of art, sci- 
ence, the very latest and best. Readily 
apprehended the new methods, new ways, 
adopted new ideas and modes, the mo- 
ment his instinctive mind grasped them. 

He was especially social ; his spirits were 
gay. No gloom or shadow ever made him 
moody or silent. He knew men, perhaps, 
was gifted to read character and rightly 
estimate human qualities. He had a keen 
sense of the ludicrous, especially in the talk 
and conduct of men, and while he was a 
little intolerant of the weak and shiftless, 
especially if allied to the mean and under- 
handed, yet no man was quicker to condone 
or forgive. Few men had a greater faculty 
to win regard, love and confidence. No 
man ever was more loved and trusted by 
those about him than was he. When word 
came of the accident at Painesville, men 
and women, children and the aged, ran 
wringing their hands, in tears, toward the 



106 ELMER RIDDLE 

station. Each had lost the dearest and 
most tenderly loved brother. It was a 
personal loss to nearly every household, 
irreparable in many. 

He had the faculty of inspiring men 
about him, and getting the best out of 
them. He employed men whom others 
would not. He trusted men whom no 
other man would trust. Men would do 
things for him they would not do for any 
other. No man betrayed his trust, or told 
him lies or did him grudging service ; and 
when his employees on that sad, dark Sat- 
urday morning gathered at the silent factory 
and shops, and noted the mute machinery, 
from which the life and soul had gone out, 
they realized afresh their great personal 
loss. The strong, lithe form, the musical, 
cheery voice, which they had come to love, 
were broken and hushed forever, and they 
stood drooping and silent, or conversing in 
low and broken voices, about the works, 
for a day or two, until after the funeral, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 10? 

where they were among the sincerest 
mourners. To them the loss was personal, 
irreparable. 

Elmer had, as had his father, many of 
the qualities which make leaders of men. 
Not political leaders, not seeking to lead — 
as he certainly never did — but in emergen- 
cies, when men without concert are called 
on suddenly to act, in the presence of peril. 
Then he would certainly, by the law of 
nature — natural selection — be the leader. 
As at Bass Lake, when he pushed to the 
rescue, a dozen boats and crews were on 
the lake to escort him back with the res- 
cued crew. 

Singularly modest and unassuming, he 
was glad to do things — that he had done 
them, but to vaunt them or name them, he 
could no more do than boast of his strength, 
skill with the rifle, the riding and manage- 
ment of a horse, or a sail boat. 

As stated, his bent of mind was for me- 
chanics. There was something more — he 



I0§ ELMER RIDDLE 

was inventive. His uncle Harrison Riddle, 
who had never seen an electric apparatus, 
was without tools and appliances, con- 
structed one while yet a boy. The younger 
George had great mechanical skill. John 
was a born architect, had an eye for accu- 
racy of form, and could realize what he 
saw. Many of the family had an aptitude 
for the use of tools, could make anything 
at the first essay. The talent was not lim- 
ited to the males. Elmer had a girl cousin, 
who can, from seeing a picture, make any 
costume or part of it, of the time of chiv- 
alry, or any other period, male and female. 
Nor is she alone in this. 

Elmer certainly had this faculty in a very 
full measure, as has been stated. He 
always had a work-bench and tools. While 
on the farm he made several pieces of fur- 
niture, finishing them with a delicacy and 
perfection equal to the best workmanship. 
So also at Chardon, in odd bits of time, his 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 1 69 

deft hand, with dexterity, produced what- 
ever his fancy or need required. 

The talent was of great practical value 
in his various manufactories. He knew at 
once what he wanted, what a given machine 
could do, could set it up, care for it, and 
knew what it required; was apt and in- 
ventive in all the appliances that improved 
or facilitated its working. More than one 
of his inventions might have been profit- 
ably patented. He was too busy and un- 
selfish for that, and gave them to any man 
who wanted and could make them useful. 

He was by nature a good speaker; had 
by gift a good command of language, spoke 
it with accuracy and flowingly, using it as 
he did all implements — effectively and 
gracefully. With his vigorous mind, quick 
sympathy, fancy and magnetism, he would 
readily have become an unusually good 
speaker. He once had a series of transac- 
tions with a man, with whom he chose not 
to quarrel, and their somewhat complicated 



110 ELMER RIDDLE 

differences were referred to their respective 
counsel to award upon, who, "at Chambers," 
heard the parties. On this occasion Elmer 
made quite his sole extended speech, which 
was spoken of as a fine piece of off-hand 
statement, argument and occasional sarcasm 
and ridicule. 

His immediate ancestors on both sides 
were of liberal religious views, Unitarian 
and Universalists. He never had the ad- 
vantage or burden — whichever they are in 
men's estimation — of orthodox teaching 
and dogma. His receptive mind was open 
to the criticism of the day upon all prevail- 
ing religious theories. He was an admir- 
ing reader of Ingersoll, but did not accept 
his conclusions. He thought that bril- 
liant and versatile man was indebted 
to Christianity for much of the really 
good in his rich and generous nature. 
His faith in a Supreme Ruler was reverent 
and docile. There was much in the teach- 
ing and preaching of his friend, Dr. Cone, 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. Ill 

that found acceptance with him, and seemed 
profitable for the elevation of character, and 
the practical affairs of life. He taught the 
faith of grandmother Minerva Riddle, whom 
he remembered with the liveliest affection, 
and whom he was taught to regard and 
revere as one of the noblest of women ; as 
also of grandfather Hayden, whose strong 
lines of character he came to respect. 

Of his estimation by his neighbors and 
fellowmen, nothing remains to be said. 
Bold and firm in the statement of his 
opinions and maintenance of his positions, 
he nevertheless provoked no heat or tem- 
porary resentments. The man behind the 
utterance was so frank, manly, just and 
generous ; so modest and sincere, yet of 
such imperturbable good nature, as to never 
provoke a sharp reply. 

In his home, by his fireside, his 
ioveable qualities were most conspicu- 
ous. A man may impose upon the 
public ; he is known at home. His 



112 ELMER RIDDLE 

home was not a mere refuge, nor yet wholly 
a sanctuary. It was these and much more; 
it was a fountain, a place of refreshing, of 
rebuilding, renovating, strengthening alike 
of body, soul, hope, inspiration and aspira- 
tion. He always went from it fresh, strong, 
buoyant, hopeful. He always returned to 
it eagerly, gladly — rushed to it, as the one 
certain unfailing good. He never left it 
for a day without something akin to pain, 
unless Laura and the girls were with him. 
He never remained from it a night when 
he could get back to it. The love of his 
home grew with the passing years until, 
though not a facile writer, when away, he 
permitted no day to pass without a letter 
to Laura. 

The little telephone between office 
and house was a golden cord — the filmy 
way of the patriarch's dream, on which 
bright-winged angels were constantly going 
and coming between husband and wife, 
father and daughters. 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. 113 

Baby Alice came to half understand 
it, and still runs to it hourly, for the mes- 
sage that is never to come, hearing only 
the plaining harp voice of the moaning; 
wind, on the vibrating wire. 

Of his character it need only be said that- 
no man, woman or child ever spoke ill of 
him ; no word of scandal or reproach. 
Men never complained of him or accused 
him, nor spoke of him save to praise and 
commend him — true son of his father Mer- 
rick, grandchild of Thomas and Minerva Rid- 
dle. If any of us fall below the highest aver- 
age in good conduct, we are much more in 
fault than the average man. In the nature 
of things — such things as men and women 
in this wayward world of sin and folly — 
Elmer was not without faults, many and 
grave, doubtless, but surely he of whom 
no one ever spoke a word of reproach, in 
a humble way approaches the idea of com- 
pleteness of human character and conduct. 

Is it a wonder that there was heartbreak 



114 ELMER RIDDLE 

at his inscrutable death ? that some hearts 
are to remain long inconsolable ? that the 
coming and the renewal of this first season, 
with its warming skies, its buds and birds, 
which would have made him so glad, will 
be to them a renewal of the sorrow which 
flows with such full tide ? The danger is, 
that grief will become a habit, its indulg- 
ence an unhealthy vice of the mind — a 
pleasure almost, which the sufferer regards 
as a sacred duty. To him nothing would 
appear so weak and inexcusable as this. 
There were no gloomy caves in his brain, 
no blue chambers, no dark chords, no mel- 
ancholy tones, in his nature. His soul was 
full of light ; he lived in the sunshine, and 
nothing — no cloud or sorrow — could long 
hide them from him. His nature was joy- 
ous, and if it is given the departed to know 
the grief which their going causes to those 
they leave, he will be unhappy until light 
:and cheerfulness return to the spirits — the 
jhome of the best loved. 



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